Roots and Rivers
Summer Solstice 2025
Dear friends,
The sun stands at its highest today — the longest day, the fullest light. In the Earthsong tradition, the Summer Solstice is a time of abundance and gratitude. We pause to honor what sustains us, and nothing sustains life quite like water.
On water
Every tradition in our Codex speaks of water. The Māori honor the wairua (spirit) of rivers. Andean communities offer gratitude to mountain springs that feed their fields. Native American traditions teach that water is life itself — not a metaphor, but a fact.
This season, we’re asking a simple question: Do you know the name of your nearest waterway?
Not the highway it runs beside, or the park it passes through — its name. The creek, the brook, the river that carries rain from your watershed to the sea. Learning its name is the first act of kinship.
Community highlights
The first wave of Harmony Circles met this spring, and the stories are beautiful:
- A group in Portland gathered in a community garden to read the Path of Compassion chapter together. They decided to sponsor a pollinator bed.
- A family in Vermont adopted a half-mile stretch of the White River and organized their first cleanup with neighbors.
- An online circle spanning three time zones held a New Moon reflection using the Sacred Cycles calendar.
If you’ve hosted a circle, we’d love to hear about it.
Deep read: The Ancient Roots
This issue, we invite you to revisit Chapter II of the Codex — The Ancient Roots. It traces the spiritual lineages that feed Earthsong: Shinto, Druidism, Māori spirituality, Andean Cosmovision, Native American traditions, Zulu cosmology, and Aboriginal Dreamtime.
These aren’t traditions we claim. They’re traditions we honor — and from which we learn that reverence for the Earth is not new, not niche, and not optional.
Solstice practice
Tonight, if you can, step outside at sunset. Face the last light. Take three slow breaths. With each exhale, name something the Earth has given you today. It doesn’t need to be grand — a glass of water, shade from a tree, the sound of birds.
Gratitude is how we begin to give back.
Walk gently, The Earthsong Community